The Rise of the Armed Gem
by Potential Violet
Summary: A very brief summary of how the first Gems came to possess summoned weapons.


Chapter 1: The Rise of the Armed Gem

"In ancient times, the 'armed Gem' was a thing not often seen." is a quotation commonly attributed to Lady Aquamarine of the Quiet Waters, who is purported to have said it shortly before the colonisation of Vanenne to convey her displeasure at being placed in command of a company of Gems.

Throughout the millennia Lady Aquamarine fought (and continues to fight) for the expansion of Her Majesty Blue Diamond's dedicated security force, and regularly conducts informal meetings with members of the Imperial Army — in addition to the formal talks she holds with the highest ranking and most decorated individuals. When one takes these actions into account it seems doubtful that Lady Aquamarine would so casually dismiss the opportunity to lead Gems in a military capacity, and thus brings the accuracy of the quotation into question.

But whilst the origins of the saying are still a matter of debate, the truth of it is agreed by Gems surviving from that period (explaining its frequent use as an oratory device). To enable a comprehensive study of summoned weaponry and its development we must look not only at that era, but also to a time before even the armed Gem was an infrequent occurrence, back to when the oldest Gems recall emerging from Homeworld's crust.

To come across a naturally formed individual was an event no less sporadic for the first Gems as it is for us now: As on a typical uncolonised world, geological phenomena on Homeworld took place in a slow and continuous way, and in that way a truly random mixture of varieties would very slowly find their way onto the planet's surface. As one might expect, these lone Gems wandered the vast expanses of our home world — for hundreds of years in some cases, avoiding the numerous natural dangers until they found another such individual. In reality this took far less time than the concept suggests, as Gems have always been drawn to one another; though the mechanism by which this takes place has yet to be discovered.

When the ancient Gems began encountering one another the basics of language came into existence; it is inconclusive whether their simple gestures and sounds were sufficient to communicate complex ideas, and anecdotal evidence suggests that the joy of having company was what made the wanderers journey together, and the understanding that much more could be gained from travelling together than alone arose later, at a subconscious level. Whatever the case happened to be, a fundamental change was taking place: Over time individuals became pairs, then threes or fours and so forth, until caravans of roughly 8 to 20 persons became the norm.

It is at this point that the Gem race started to seriously experiment with the materials of the ground. The caravans were largely content with their surface existence and comfortable with their ability to navigate the world safely, but Gems have always possessed two important traits: the first being a unique connection to the planet from which our gems are derived, the second being a desire to do whatever we do, **__**well**__**. Applied to society as it was back then, these traits manifested themselves as a drive to fully understand not only the structures and spaces around them, but also what lay beneath their feet, how activity there could alter the world above it and principally — how Gems might be freed more quickly from their places of formation.

But they found that they could only explore so far when following the paths that nature opened for them; going further into the crust would require objects crafted specifically to make their goals easier to achieve: It was soon realised that these objects could be made from substances that had already been discovered — and thus, the first material tools were created.

The next period of history is sometimes referred to as The Precious Metal Era, as many major discoveries and methods in the field of metallurgy came to pass during this age. Hammers, chisels, pickaxes, knives and rudimentary drills were the 'weapons' of choice at the time for the larger Gems, whilst smaller tools for fine work (including gemcuttting, as precious stones also started to be classified) were generally perfected by those with a more compact build.

Another regularly used saying — this one from an unknown source — states that "requirement is the matrix of innovation". Intuitively understood by virtually all Gems, it is this concept that led to one of the most important innovations in the history of the Gem race ( _ _the__ most important, in certain fields): the art of summoning from within.

Though the ancient Gems had achieved much in their comparatively short time, the position and composition of certain types of rock made it infeasible to manipulate them with the technology they possessed; furthermore, material tools at the time required frequent maintenance and were subject to breakages under minimal stress, and the more complex equipment needed to produce the tools (for example. furnaces for smelting) suited the nomadic ways of the early Gems poorly. Vast distances between sources of useful materials — knowledge of said sources was a must if equipment was to be replaced as necessary — and new sites of interest also proved to be a regular problem. What was required were extremely durable, portable, low-maintenance tools; it is not known exactly when, or by whom it was first theorised that such objects could be projected from one's gem in the same manner as their physical form — but this monumental suggestion was made and tested, and the caravans quickly adopted then refined the technique.

By the time the first summoned objects were being used, individual caravans had already come into contact with one another and would either trade (hand crafted items, material tools, useful minerals, practical methods and even other Gems), or merge, forming 'clusters' of around 30 to 100 Gems. The discovery of summoning brought forth two new potential outcomes: appropriation — where the inanimate resources __only__ of one caravan would be forcibly taken by another, or acquisition — where the aggressor group would assimilate victim group, usually forming a servant class for itself in the process. Both offensive action and resistance to it were made more effective through the use of objects summoned specifically for such purposes, and these objects were the first to be thought of as weapons in the sense that we think of them today.

Interestingly, the __initial__ use of summoning is reflected in the etymology of the word 'weapon', which originates from the from the phrase 'orre pien' — literally meaning 'summoned tool' in Archaic Gem. However, when Homeworld Unifying Auxilary Language was constructed for use as the standard means of communication among Gems, the word was semantically changed — removing some of its ambiguity.

— Turquoise-1F31 Cut-31IJ. __Arms Through the Ages__. 22nd Edition, pp. 1-7


End file.
